AMES, Iowa—Rural America includes every place that is not urban-from micropolitan areas with up to 50,000 residents, to the smallest, unincorporated towns and open country.  Iowa State University is hosting a symposium in August to explore the challenges facing these places and ways to build capacity and create support for rural development efforts.  Attendees that would benefit from the conference include local economic developers, municipal officials, mayors, city council members, community foundation people, members of banks or other people that have been known to develop seed capital funds for entrepreneurs, main street members, and chamber of commerce.

The Iowa State University Rural Development Symposium: Research, Practice and Success will be held August 15, 2019 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center in Ames, Iowa.  Registration is open online and the cost is $75 per person.

Gary Taylor, Director of ISU Extension and Outreach’s Community and Economic Development Program and also an associate director of Iowa State’s Institute for Design Research and Outreach notes the symposium offers the opportunity to talk with and learn from businesses, entrepreneurs, funders and government officials.

The symposium will cover current research, practices and success for economic development and quality of life in rural America.  Conference speakers include representatives from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Iowa State University, and other Midwestern universities and nonprofit organizations.

Presentation and panel discussions will cover community well-being, labor markets, business succession and retention, business location and expansion, and rural capital and innovation.

for more information and to register, got to https://register.extension.iastate.edu/rural.

(contributed article ISU Extension and Outreach)